We wanted to provide a bit of a wider view on current law school applicant data trends.
LSAC has recently stopped displaying percentage changes with their volume data, so we wanted to publish these figures for anyone who may find this information useful.
We're not sure where the time has gone, but it's already November 1st, and we're a couple months into our 2021-2022 application cycle.
Disclaimer: It's still early. Data is most volatile early and things can change. But I suspect, highly, this cycle won't look like last cycle in respect to number of high scorers 170+, and I also think it is likely applicants (maybe not applications though) will end up down from last year.
LSAC has posted our first look at 2021-2022 applicant volume. As of today, there are 12.6% more law school applicants so far this cycle than there were at this time last year. For comparison, at this time last year there were 32.8% more applicants than the cycle before that.
We have our first glimpse at 2021-2022 cycle volume. As of 9/23 there were about 6,000 law school applicants so far this year. That's about 15% more than last cycle's ~5,100, and 50% more than the 2019-2020 cycle's ~3,900.
If you're here looking for new law school medians, they're in this document!
Registration for the August 2021 LSAT closes today. Right now there are about 33,000 registrants, but we should note that we've been seeing an unusual number of dropouts and/or date switches lately, so that number will probably go down, and perhaps a great deal.
This isn't a full post-mortem on the 2020-2021 application cycle, because it's not over yet. But we're at the point when we can start to get a feeling for what happened this year.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike gives an update on 2022-2023 cycle data and discusses admissions strategies for the second half of the application cycle: waitlists and letters of continued interest, tips for asking for scholarship reconsideration, and handling the waiting/anxiety. (It may surprise you how impactful that last item can be to your outcomes!)
Mike recorded this episode before final January 2023 LSAT data was out—you can find the latest update on our Twitter, here. A few other Status Check episodes are mentioned in this podcast as well:
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about the different factors that precipitate waves of law school admissions decisions being released, especially late in the cycle/during waitlist season.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this short episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about the widespread notion that, even beyond whatever specific and concrete challenges we each may be facing, there is an added factor of "everything" (in today's society, in life) that can sometimes feel crushing. Then he gives some advice.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
In this short episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses a question that tends to come up frequently this time of year—“Should I contact x law school's admissions office to ask for an update since I haven't heard back yet?”—then talks generally about when it can be advantageous to reach out to admissions, why, and how you should do it.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about how online law school admissions discussion can affect (or not affect) your outcomes. Are adcoms on Reddit? Will they Google you? What sorts of online conduct can turn an admit into a waitlist or deny? Mike gives his thoughts on these questions and more from 15+ years following law school message boards.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses the factors that have led to this historically slow-moving cycle—and how you can strategically leverage that knowledge to your advantage.
Mike references two of our other episodes in this podcast:
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.